Video: The terrible battle

In this chapter we are going to be building a fairly elaborate layered composition and as we work we will try out a couple of key organizational tools that Photoshop makes available to you when you are working with layers. The first is called Layer Groups and the second are called Layer Comps, they are both very useful as it turns out very practical tools but I find a lot of people don't know about them even fairly advanced Photoshop users as it turns out. Now I would like you to open this image right here it's called terriblebattle.psd, it's included inside the 14GroupsComps folder.

Photoshop is the tool of choice for most creative professionals and has quickly become household name synonymous with computer art and image manipulation. In Photoshop CS3 One-on-One: Beyond the Basics, internationally renowned Photoshop guru Deke McClelland teaches such digital-age wonders as masking, filters, layers, blend modes, Liquify, Vanishing Point, and vector-based type. Along the way, Deke also teaches tried-and-true methods for sharpening details, smoothing over wrinkles and imperfections, trimming away jowls and fat, and wrapping one image around the surface of another. Plus, the training teaches how to construct and organize the elements in a composition so you can edit them easily in the future. Exercise files accompany the tutorial.

The terrible battle

In this chapter we are going to be building a fairly elaborate layered composition and as we work we will try out a coupleof key organizational tools that Photoshop makes available to you when you are working with layers.The first is called Layer Groups and the second are called Layer Comps, they are both very useful as it turnsout very practical tools but I find a lot of people don't know about them even fairly advanced Photoshop users as it turns out.Now I would like you to open this image right here it's called terriblebattle.psd,it's included inside the 14GroupsComps folder.

And this is a name it started shot at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.It features a classic battle between some brittle old Tyrannosaurus Rex and Stegosaurus Skeletons.Now if you open this image on your system it's possible you might get this message right here.The idea is that this image contains a live text layer and anytime you open a Photoshop imagewith a live text layer there is always the chance that Photoshop is going to want to update those layersfor vector output meaning for high resolution text output.

And the reason is that the Adobe team is constantly finessing the Photoshop textension 1.12 even between versions as it turns out.So you never know when this alert message is going to come up on screen.The only reason you would want to click No is if you didn't have the fonts loaded on your system that I am using inside this file.But it turns out I am using a font called Verdana which is one of the most common fonts on earth,it's included on every single recent version of the Windows Operating System, it's included on the Macand so there is no reason not to click on update.

Things will just go more smoothly for you if you click update and you might even wantto just say don't show again and update for all that.I am going to turn that off just in case we come to it again.Alright, so here we are inside of this fantastical composition.It does contain a bunch of layers by the way, we just happen to be seeing the background layer at this point of time.Now the image is sufficiently large that I have gone ahead and collapsed all my palettes icons hereand I want to show you really cool thing about working with palette icons.

I am going to press the F7 key in order to spring up the Layers palette out of this little Layers palette icon here.You probably know that you can make this palette larger by dragging down on the bottomof this pane, this start pane that surrounds the palette.You could also drag this lower right corner if you want to.But did you know you can also drag up like this so that the palette stretches to moreor less the full hide of your screen not quite but almost.And that will be remembered so if I press F7 to hide the palette and then press F7 again to bringup the palette I have more room devoted to the Layers palette this way than I wouldif all of my palettes were visible on screen.

Isn't that totally awesome?Yes, it is.Alright, so let's take a look at the layers that I have already created inside of this composition,only one thing let's do that in the next exercise.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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